Harper's cook book encyclopædia

; put a few slices of fat salt pork into a pan, place the cucumbers on them, dust with bread-crumbs, put on the top of each, and apart, three pieces of butter the size of a bean, put the pan into a hot oven until the cucumbers are well baked, and serve. A little meat gravy may be poured over each just before serving. Egg-plant. — Cut into slices about one-eighth of an inch thick, either peeled or unpeeled, whichever is preferred, and lay the slices for two hours in salt and water, or place one piece above another, with a little salt between, for an hour or two ; drain well ; dip into egg or cream, and then cracker- crumbs. Or make a thickening of flour and water, not too thin ; dip in, and fry in very hot butter. Egg-plant, Baked. — Remove the inside of an egg-plant, but leave the shell hard and firm. Be sure that there are no breaks or cracks in the shell. Mash the pulp well, and add bread-crumbs, a wineglassful or more of good cream, butter, and salt (plenty of the latter especially), and paprika. Put all back in the shell and tie up and bake. The length of time it will take to bake depends upon the size of the egg-plant, but it will take certainly an hour, and perhaps longer. Egg-plant, Gratined, with Tomatoes.— Cut the head from a good-sized egg-plant and scoop out the inside, leaving only the sixth of an inch of the fleshy part. Remove all the seeds, put the pieces in a bowl with one teaspoonful of salt for one hour. Squeeze them well, to take all the water out ; chop the pieces coarsely, then prepare this stuffing : Cut in pieces one quart of fresh tomatoes, put them in a small saucepan with three medium - sized white onions sliced, two sprigs of parsley, a small bay-leaf, one clove ; cook fast for twenty minutes, with uncovered saucepan, stirring often. Strain through a fine strainer, letting all the pulp of the tomatoes go through. Soak half a pint of white bread-crumbs in milk, squeeze well, add it to the fleshy part of the eggplant, and add half of the tomato puree. Reserve the other half to serve as a sauce. Add two yolks of raw eggs, one table-spoonful of butter, one salt-spoonful of salt, one of pepper ; mix everything well, fill up the egg-plant very full, spread over the top a thin layer of fine white breadcrumbs. Put three table-spoonfuls of olive oil in a baking-pan with the egg-plant, and cook in hot oven forty minutes ; baste three times. Finish the tomato puree, which is to be served as a sauce on the plate, by warming it up and seasoning with one saltspoonful of salt, half a one of pepper, half a table-spoonful of fresh butter. Egg - plant, Stuffed. — Choose a large, firm egg-plant for this purpose, and parboil it for ten minutes, then lay in iced salted water, and leave there for an hour. Make a forcemeat of a cup and a half of breadcrumbs, half a cup of minced boiled ham, pepper and salt to taste, a teaspoonful of minced parsley, and a few drops of onion-juice. Make this into a paste by adding a little cream and a beaten egg. Remove the eggplant from the water, wipe it dry, and Gooseberry Lettuce, Boiled